The Second Time Can Be The Charm

Your first marathon will always hold a special place in your treasure trove of running memories. I ran my first at age 24, after 10 years of scholastic and road-race competition; the 1994 Atlanta Marathon remains my slowest 26.2-miler out of more than a dozen finishes, yet I have more scrapbook entries from that race than from most of the others put together, and still view it as one of my greatest running triumphs.

That said, the undeniable vigor of a first marathon -- not just the race itself but the months of training, experimentation, uncertainty and general ups-and-downs preceding it -- potentially poses something of an obstacle to future endeavors. With a marathon finally in the bag, the last thing most runners can imagine in the immediate aftermath is going through exactly the same thing again, no matter how positive an experience the maiden voyage might have been. You want to bask in your achievement, and rightfully so. But if you decide to do a second marathon, it can often be as rewarding as your first, especially because many runners set big new personal bests the second time around.

Second Helpings

When you are ready to look forward, Reebok Aggies coach and two-time Olympic trials marathon qualifier Joe Rubio advises that you may not want to think about your first marathon much at all. "[When] a runner has a great first outing," Rubio says, "odds favor the second one falling short of expectations." The problem, Rubio explains, is expecting to feel great the second time out, so that when things are actually more difficult than a runner has imagined, he or she thinks, "What did I do wrong?" and confronts a race that's more work than fun. Complacency in training can become an issue as well. "If a person has a great first marathon experience, I would caution against taking the event for granted and approach the prep with the same focus and drive as the first one instead of taking the 'I got this event nailed' attitude," says Rubio.

On the other hand, when an athlete falls well short of expectations on the first try, Rubio says that it's probably a good idea to consult a trusted training partner or a local coach for ideas as to why. "Have them look over your training and try to determine if the athlete was over-baked going into the marathon, if the training lacked a key element or if the athlete didn't have enough lead-up races to determine fitness and improve racing skills," Rubio advises.Better With Age

Fortunately, in gunning for a follow-up marathon, you won't, strictly speaking, have to repeat the past. Experience is a tricky but inimitable teacher, and if you learn properly from your first marathon -- no matter what your expectations going in and the result -- your second marathon can be just as powerful a journey, and likely a much faster one as well.

The latter two points should serve as your greatest motivation for not hanging up your marathon shoes after a single outing. Once you've decided to give a follow-up marathon a shot, here's what to plan for and how to ensure that your transition from newbie to veteran is as smooth as an often-rough race allows.

Take Stock

Once the pomp and the psychological buzz of your first race have subsided, ask yourself some basic analytical questions: Was your pacing scaled to your abilities? Was it erratic? Did you run markedly positive or negative splits? Were you properly dressed? Did you avoid blisters, sunburn, chafing? Was your hydration and fueling scheme optimal? (If you see dark amber urine in your first trip to the john after a race, you were probably less than well hydrated.) Ironing out any kinks you find -- and you'll certainly spot them -- is as important as addressing your training.

Chances are you were sore for several days once you finished. But was this likely the result of a hilly course, or might you have worn inappropriate shoes without enough cushioning or support?

Also, how was your mental state before and during the race? Did you engage in positive self-chatter? Were you able to negotiate rough patches and self-doubt and bargain effectively with a mind saddled with a considerable burden? Did you stick to your pre-race plan, and if not, why not and what did you change?

Be assured, however, that there's no need to answer all of these questions definitively--and that's a good thing, because it's highly unlikely you'll be able to do so no matter how alert and analytical you are. "I think one of the most important things is for individuals who have just run their first marathon to not overreact to the outcome," says two-time Olympic marathoner and exercise physiologist Pete Pfitzinger. "There are many factors contributing to marathon performance, and it is easy to latch on to a particular factor and over-emphasize its contribution to the final result."

The primary indicator most first-time marathoners consciously respond to is the steadiness of their own pacing or lack of same. If you slowed down in the second half of the race but didn't crash, you probably ran reasonably close to your potential at the time. Marked late-race slowing in the absence of clearly starting too fast is usually attributable to adverse conditions, glycogen depletion, or simple inexperience and a shortage of long runs and overall mileage. Pfitzinger notes that late-race slowdowns can be divided into factors beyond an athlete's control (weather, course profile) and those within their control (pacing, carbohydrate and fluid intake before and during the race, shoe and clothing selection, and most importantly, the amount and caliber of training in the weeks and months leading up to the marathon). Because all of these factors interact, it is difficult -- particularly for a novice -- to identify which factors contributed the most to slowing later in the race. A coach or more experienced runner can help provide some insight here.

Choose an Appropriate and Informed Goal

It's much easier to pinpoint a time goal the second time around than it is as a marathon virgin. When trying to figure out how much of a jump to expect in your second attempt, you'll want to seek advice from a range of marathoners. You'll be basing your goal not only on your previous result and how you achieved it (e.g., conservatively versus being overly aggressive) but on how much experience you had as a runner and competitor going in. A former NCAA runner with a relatively quick marathon debut, for example, would not be expected to improve as much in either percentile or absolute terms as a 40-year-old with one year of running experience.

Regardless, it's never a good idea to be to gung-ho when it comes to goal-setting, because a second marathon that by all objective criteria is a success can be construed as a failure when held up to an exaggerated standard. Pfitzinger cautions: "A big risk going into the second marathon is to try to chop off too much time. I have known people to do 3:40 in their first marathon and shoot for 3:10 in their second marathon, which has about a 90 percent failure rate." If these individuals tried to chop at most 10 or 15 minutes off their time, he says, their likelihood of success -- and of building confidence for future marathons -- would be much higher.

Once you've selected a ballpark figure, your training in key zones will help your goal evolve from a fluid entity into a concrete one; as your speed workouts, tempo runs and long runs fall into relatively stable (though hopefully improving) pace ranges, your marathon goal time will solidify. Even runners competing at a high level usually run considerably better in their second marathon thanks to a combination of straightforward and elusive factors; the ability to psychologically manage the particular brand of fatigue the marathon coughs up, for example, is something that can only be learned, not inferred.

Make the Right Changes to Your Training

Presumably, you're ready to step things up in your second go-around. But by how much, and in what way? How often should you run hard, and how many days should you allocate to pure recovery running? Does your schedule allow for a reasonable balance between stress and rest? Are your easy days truly easy, e.g., run at or below about 70 percent of your maximum heart rate?

One thing that experienced marathoners can more easily take advantage of is, not surprisingly, marathon-pace runs. There are two reasons for this: The body is better equipped to turn the considerable stress of these sessions into fitness gains, and the runner, as mentioned earlier, has a better idea of what his or her marathon pace actually is.

Also, although you may well be ready to ratchet up your training, be on the lookout for adding too much, too soon. "I think that overtraining is another risk in that it is tempting to think, 'I trained hard for the first marathon and that went pretty well, so now I'll train much harder and the second marathon will be that much better,'" observes Pfitzinger. "A more moderate increase in mileage and intensity will have a much higher likelihood of success than a more extreme approach."

Because even experienced athletes struggle with these concerns on their own, again, it's a wise idea to consult a variety of sources: coaches, long-time marathoners and running literature. Many runners discover that they need a second set of eyes on their training to keep them honest, which most often means not going too hard, too often. As marathoners build their mileage toward unprecedented levels, the need to keep easy days almost shamefully easy moves from important to critical.

It's important to realize that not everyone who has finished a slew of marathons is necessarily an authority on proper preparation; while some advice may be judged universal, not all of it is, and some people make the same mistakes over and over for years without realizing it, becoming locked into patterns that allow for enough improvement to mask these shortcomings.

Tip: The single element most often lacking in marathon training programs is the medium-long run done at a moderate but progressively faster pace from start to finish.

Avoid Last-Minute or Race-Day Sabotage

Chances are decent that you're not sleeping in your own bed before most, if not all, of your marathons. Think of the things you may have done before your first marathon that you wouldn't have done had you thought things through: Strolling around for a few hours the day before at an expo or to check out a novel city, eating ethnic food that may not have agreed with you, "treating" yourself at a pasta dinner only 10 or 12 hours before the gun went off -- these are things people wouldn't dream of doing in the controlled environments of their own homes, but can unwittingly fall victim to while traveling. Make sure that you've done long runs at the same time of day the race begins and having consumed the same basic foods in the same quantities and patterns. As simple or intuitive as this may sound, a lot of people forget the essentials when home is temporarily in a hotel and dinner comes off a menu instead of out of the refrigerator.

There are also race-day issues to be aware of that you may not be able to fully rehearse or address in training. If you wear lightweight training shoes or racing flats that have served you well in flat marathons, don't assume they'll be equally helpful on rolling courses -- most "cramps" people attribute to things like potassium deficiency (a clinically rare condition in marathoners) are really the result of footwear that doesn't offer adequate cushioning or support. And because you typically have the entire width of the roadway at your disposal in a race and thus run tangents, you're apt to experience alternating cambers (the built-in, sideways tilting of the road surface), which can also predispose you to calf woes over 26.2 miles. Stick to the crown of the road as much as you can unless this implies adding significant distance, which it rarely does.

One mental challenge nearly all marathoners confront are bad patches early in the race. In every marathon I've run, somewhere around the 5-mile or 10K mark, no matter how I have felt or performed to that point, I have been hit with out-of-the-blue, very irrational impulses to quit -- not just the race, but running itself. The worst episode of this was at the 2001 Boston Marathon, where I went on to record a PR. Understand that your mind will probe at its own weak spots in a kind of civil disobedience, and do your best to shrug it off, even quietly joining in the fun by laughing at yourself and then concentrating anew on the task at hand.

Apart from the aforementioned considerations, there are, Pfitzinger points out, other opportunities for learning and refinement between a runner's first and second marathons. "One important but often overlooked area is how to adjust your lifestyle to improve recovery," he says. "By eating the right foods at the right times and staying well-hydrated and getting into a regular sleep pattern, runners will improve their recovery and hence improve their running performance."

The sidebar below outlines the main things you'll want to keep in mind as you get ready for another try at the marathon. While it's often said that the third time is a charm, a well-planned buildup to a part deux can help you bend this rule -- as long as you're careful to follow the suggested ones.

A final piece of advice

As you transition from a newbie to a genuine veteran, make a point of discovering what it is that makes you unique, because each of us is a dynamic work in progress with a special blend of familiar qualities. "Some runners require more recovery than others, while other runners thrive on high mileage and long threshold runs," notes Nicole Hunt, a 2:40 marathoner who operates the coaching site SpeedEndurance.net. "Some runners need several weeks of tapering while others do best on a one- or two-week taper."

Regardless of your personal foibles, the keys to making the most of your second marathon amount to the same strategies that allow for maximal running progress in any discipline: analysis, consistency, and a balance of restraint and informed intensity. Since your second marathon is, by all but the strictest definition, your first chance to set a PR at the distance, you'd be wise to cover all the bases before lining up.

Senior writer Kevin Beck has a marathon PR of 2:24 and is the editor of the book Run Strong (2005, Human Kinetics).

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